130 million people used Aadhaar in March to authenticate identity, receive benefits

More than 130 million people used Aadhaar this past March to authenticate their identity and receive a government benefit or service, according to the latest figures submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) at a meeting chaired by the PM earlier this month.

“This is the ultimate test of Aadhaar – whether people are actively using it to receive a service or benefit,” a senior government official told the India Times, adding that the PMO was enthused over the response and expects over 150 Cr Aadhaar authenticated transactions in 2016. “The online authentication platform is capable of handling 100 million transactions daily.”

In March, the Indian parliament passed legislation that added a privacy protection framework to Aadhaar. The bill demands that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency that administers Aadhaar, take steps to ensure confidentiality of identity data. This includes storing all Aadhaar data in a centralized database known as the “Central Identities Data Repository”.